The
case for US sea clam meal as an aquafeed ingredient.
A project in the works.

The
Challenge: Since the early 1990s, state officials and
university researchers have investigated alternative ways
to dispose of processing byproducts from processing sea
clam of surf clams and ocean quahogs in New Jersey. These
previous efforts have analyzed land application, swine feed,
composting and many of these efforts have not proven more
cost-effective than landfilling.

New
Jersey (USA) landed 38.5 million pounds of sea clams meats
in 2010. This translates into 31 million pounds of viscera
and nonrecoverable meats, according to estimates by earlier
researchers.

While
much of the sea clam landings in New Jersey are sent out-of-state,
three processors of sea clams in southern New Jersey and
Delaware generate in excess of 5 million pounds of viscera
and unrecoverable meats (byproduct), annually. Estimates
are that the disposal costs, which have been formerly landfilling
and is currently composting, are collectively about $250,000
annually. The generation of protein components (coproducts)
for animal feeds is most likely a higher value-added avenue
and is the premise upon which this project has been conducted.

Seafood
processors of other products such as squid and mackerel
have been part of the discussion. Commitments behind these
volumes are less clear than the 5 million pounds of sea
clam byproduct, but all additional seafood processing byproduct
would bolster the economic success of the project.

Each
sea clam processor has determined that they do not wish
to pursue an ownership position in the coproduct processing
venture. However; each has affirmed their interest in entering
long-term supplier agreements to the coproduct processing
venture.

Researchers
at NOAA have conducted separate proximate composition analysis
and complete amino acid profiles on the raw byproduct for
each species of sea clam.

The
complete ownership group of this coproduct processing facility
is unknown. As a result, the formation of the legal entity
has not been performed and many of the executive decisions
discussed above remain unknown.

Digestibility
and palatability have not been analyzed because only a few
trial batches of several pounds of coproduct have been generated.

The
Solution: Two technologies have been put forth so far.
Falcon Proteins uses an ABVRS process, where the byproduct
is finely ground and flash dried. The Northwest Fisheries
Lab of NOAA uses a Montlake process where the byproduct
is acid/enzyme-treated, the liquefied protein is separated
from the shell/sand portion, and subsequently dried.

Capital
costs are estimated to be $1 million (retrofit of an existing
building) or up to $2.5 million for a complete build from
the ground-up. Individualized processing at each sea clam
processor has been ruled out because there is insufficient
volume from each sea clam processor. Centralized coproduct
processing is the working objective.

Both
State and potentially county-level economic development
agencies have expressed interest in contributing public
sector financial services.

A
basic transportation analysis has been conducted looking
at a default site southern New Jersey. This analysis allows
the identification of collective transportation costs to
the central coproduct processing and also individually to
each sea clam processor based on distance.

Energy
costs are estimated based on the heat needed to drive out
the water portion: about 180 million BTUs per week.

Operation
and maintenance of the coproduct plant is estimated to create
8-12 full-time positions.

Depending
on incoming volumes of byproduct, pricing of coproduct using
fish meal as a proxy, byproduct yield, and level of capital
investment; Internal Rate of Return is projected to be 11%
to 28%.

Current
Status: So far, the project is in a mature concept phase.
Considerable nutritional, logistics and financial analysis
has been completed. A meeting and site visit was held in
March, where many of the processors, nutritionist, extension
agents, feed specialists and processing technology experts
convened to discuss the body of knowledge and share ideas
on how to move forward. This was followed by a steering
committee with all of the sea clam processors. A listserv
has been established to keep the discussing going on how
to advance the project from the concept phase to the commercialization
phase. To join this listserv, please click HERE
to send an e-mail to the list administrator.